Guest Post: Rituparna Dey

Rituparna is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world meetings.

Effective Meetings Generate Good Results

One business meeting in a day translates to two hundred and sixty four meetings in a year, which rolls up to seven thousand nine hundred and twenty meetings over an individual’s working career of thirty years. Isn’t that an awful amount of time doing meetings? Time is the most precious commodity in today’s world. Contemporary research reveals that most real world meetings are a waste of productive time. I read somewhere “Most meetings are social street lamps attracting the unproductive moths in an organization.” So, how do we make meetings effective? Chris Labash, in his Professional Speaking class, discusses pointed guidelines to conduct effective meetings.

Is my most appropriate vehicle a meeting?

The first question to be asked is - Do I need a meeting to accomplish my meeting results? Is it the best opportunity I have to solve my problem? Taiichi Ohno, who reinvented the Toyota Quality system, mentions that asking ‘Why’ five times would allow one to determine the root cause of a problem. For example: “Why did my project fail? Why did the scope change? Why was scope creep allowed? Why was the process not reviewed? Why was I not consulted? These answers would lead to another question – “Who were the people involved?” You have now realized that you need a meeting with those people to address your problem!

“Begin With The End In Mind” – Stephen Covey

What do I want to accomplish from the meeting? What is the purpose of this meeting; what is its focus? Whom should I call to my meeting; who are the people? What should the agenda be? Answers to these questions will help in identifying a framework to develop an effective meeting plan.

“Are my critical meeting members available?”

Ensure adequate representation in the meeting. Are decision makers present at the meeting? Meeting organizers should also check whether the most critical people would be available to attend the meeting. People can be dull or energetic. The organizer must ensure that a good mix of personalities is present in the meeting.

In my first job, our project manager once scheduled an impromptu meeting to address project delay. My lead did not attend because he had to rush to another meeting. The rest of the team, most of whom were juniors, could not contribute much to the meeting. As a result, the meeting was inadequate and another had to be scheduled in the presence of the project lead. The consequences were bizarre – as it was our deliverables were lagging behind; on top of that we lost an hour in an unfruitful meeting.

“Is my preparation adequate?”

What is the best time to hold my meeting? Mondays-Thursdays 10am-11:30am has been approved by consensus to be the most effective for a meeting discussion. Post-lunch is not a good time since people are sleepy. On the same note, Fridays might not be a good choice since people are anxious to start their weekend early. Organizers should choose a meeting place that is equally accessible to all participants. Do I have a meeting agenda that I can adhere to? Rank the tasks hierarchically on their relevance. It is best to circulate the agenda to all participants well in advance so that they can review and suggest changes. In addition, it ensures that everyone comes prepared to the meeting. Good pre-meeting preparation ensures that brainstorming in the meeting is effective and the next steps are fruitful.

“How can the leader be a ‘servant’ of the meeting?”

How should the meeting leader facilitate the meeting to build enthusiasm, to generate commitment and motivation and to enlist participation from the attendees? How should he encourage participation? The meeting leader must arrive early to set the stage for the meeting. He should do quick introductions, review the objective and agenda and subsequently throw the ball to the group. He should demonstrate energy. He should never endorse or reject an idea during a brainstorming session. He should be a better listener and involve everyone in the discussion. It is up to the leader to ensure that the meeting does not go off-track. A survey by GM consultants reveals that 74% of people do not want to waste time in meetings and 88% of people like active participation. The leader should ensure that desired results are accomplished from the meeting.

“What are the next steps?”

The leader should summarize the meeting points at regular intervals. The success of a meeting lies in identifying follow-up actions that can be derived from the meeting. Effective meetings outline the action item, identify the person who is responsible for its execution and finalize the due date and success metrics of the action item.

“What happened in the meeting?”

It is always good practice to publish meeting minutes and the action plan within twenty-four hours of the meeting. A leader should appoint a note-taker for the meeting. He should send out minutes to all the stakeholders so that people can start working on their action items right away.

Effective meetings are the ones that start and end on time. Bad meetings are frequently characterized by poor timing sense, absence of objectives, absence of agenda and ownership, unanswered questions and lack of follow-up actions. Someone once remarked, “A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map.” You frequently get lost and the destination is gray and distant. The leader to a meeting is like the captain to a ship. As leader, it is up to you to dominate, elicit decisions and facilitate discussions without indulging in self-indulgence. As leader, you can transform real world meetings.